The real writer is one
who really writes. Talent
is an invention like phlogiston
after the fact of fire.
Work is its own cure. You have to
like it better than being loved.
-- Marge Piercy, For the young who want to in The Moon Is Always Female.

Take an ax to the prison wall.
Escape.
Walk out like someone suddenly born into color.
Do it now.
-- Rumi, Quietness

Archive for the 'Art' Category

John, Derf, Backderf writes: I’m happy to report that Trashed is delivered and in the can. All 240 pages of it. Took a bit longer to put the finishing touches on it, as it always does, and MAN am I sick of looking at these pages, but it’s completed at last. Here’s the wraparound cover […]

When art becomes a death defying act, then there is much more at stake than art. Bravery is doing that which terrifies you because you realize that what you do is more important than your self. Cartoonist Aseem Trivedi fully understands the concept. In January this year, Trivedi announced he planned to launch a magazine […]

Back in 2010, while working on Tim Russo’s campaign to become a member of the Cuyahoga County Council, I had the chance to see Tim’s attic man-cave where one wall was dominated by an oversize reproduction of Shepard Fairey’s iconic Hope poster. Like Tim, I was captivated by the message of Hope (I should have […]

Cleveland Arts want to be like Cleveland Sports. And who can blame them. Free money. No strings attached. Easy to get. No spending monitors. And the biggies get Big Bucks. Dollars that is. By the millions! Since the cigarette tax started in Feb. 2007 they have access to more than $144 million as of the […]

Censorship is wrong. Full stop. How many times do I have to say: the right response to objectionable speech is never censorship (or the threat of violence) but rather more speech. On 16 March, DC Comics released a statement saying that the Albuquerque cover was now not going to run—at the artist’s request—and said that […]

I have said, many, many times, just ask any of my friends, that the proper response to offensive speech must not be censorship, but rather more speech. I would now make and addendum to that maxim: the proper response to offensive speech must be neither censorship nor violence, but rather more speech. When any confrontation […]

I’ve contemplated Joe Sacco’s graphic essay (cartoon just doesn’t work here, if ever) over the weekend and I still haven’t arrived at a satisfactory position or even framework other than to say that I know not what. Reading Ophelia Benson’s post this morning led me to The Great Hiatus which attempts to enlighten readers so […]

Gavin Aung Than at WDS 2014 from Chris Guillebeau on Vimeo. Gavin Aung Than is the creator of Zen Pencils, and told his story about a leap of faith from a day job to pursue creative fulfillment. The World Domination Summit is a worldwide gathering of creative, unconventional people. Every summer, the group descends on […]

Via Keith “Keef” Knight. I have always remembered that as a writer I am constantly working on variations of a single plot: something changed. There are many permutations on this, my favorite being either, a stranger comes to the village (think Something Wicked This Way Comes) or someone leaves the village (think Moby Dick). Everything […]

She showed up three days after my 59th birthday and I’ve been burning through more than 1,000 words a day since. My current novel, Absent Son, passed 50,000 words last Monday and I’m rapidly closing in on 200 pages. Clearly, willowy and alabaster are for slackers. Via Oglaf… Warning! Very NSFW… There are, however, no […]